Thursday, November 01, 2007

Some creatives get all the fun

Published: October 31, 2007NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A former creative director at Dentsu USA has filed suit against the holding company, claiming he was fired after he complained about being put in sexually-charged work situations that included side trips to a Czech brothel, a Tokyo bathhouse and a Maria Sharapova photo shoot.

Former senior VP-group creative director Steve Biegel is claiming that Dentsu Holdings CEO Toyo Shigeta put the married Mr. Biegel and other employees in awkward out-of-office situations. When Mr. Biegel balked and confronted Mr. Shigeta, the relationship declined and he was ultimately fired, according to an Associated Press report on the lawsuit late yesterday. The lawsuit, filed in federal court here in New York, demands unspecified damages.

Emphasizing crotchesThe court papers, as reported by the AP, contain a number of lurid details. Among them:

* A 2004 trip to a Tokyo bathhouse during which the Dentsu chief told Mr. Biegel and others to dip naked into a bath with him.

* A trip to Brazilian beach where Mr. Shigeta took numerous photos emphasizing the crotches of sunbathing women, and not letting up until he was threatened by one of his subject's male companions.

* A photo shoot in Florida that was the site of another alleged "crotch shot," this time of tennis star Maria Sharapova, who stars in Dentsu's "Make Every Shot a Power Shot" campaign for Canon. The snap was passed around and is now attached to the lawsuit as evidence.

* A separate Canon photo shoot that took Messrs. Biegel, Shigeta and others to the Czech Republic, where Mr. Biegel was duped into visiting a brothel. According to the AP, Mr. Biegel and the other executive declined to take part, leaving Mr. Shigeta angry and to label them "no fun."